Child noncompliance(resistance to parental control) is a core feature of antisocial development. The conventional clinical literature has conceptually and operationally defined noncompliance as a basically unidimensional construct. along which "oppositional" (highly noncompliant) and average children differ in quantity and thus severity. However, theory and research in developmental psychology suggest that noncompliance may well be formulated as qualitatively multidimensional in nature, regarding relative levels of skill across several domains of behavior. The proposed research is an exploratory, descriptive study of qualitative distinctions in features of noncompliance among preschool children. Focal issues are deficits and biases in skilled/unskilled noncompliance by oppositional children compared to average children inhibition of skilled/ facilitation of unskilled noncompliance by parents of oppositional children and prediction from noncompliance skill-levels to child prosocial and antisocial behavior in school. Parents and children will be observed in a sequence of compliance-oriented tasks, and their behavior will be coded on a sequential, even-by-event basis. A 2(group; oppositional versus average) by 3 (skill level; skilled, intermediate, and unskilled) by 3 (domain: verbal, emotional, and gross-motor) factorial design will be used for analysis of the relative probabilities of group differences in skill levels across behavior domains and parenting responses to features of child behavior. Path analysis will test the relations between the qualitative aspects of children's noncompliance toward parents, and social adjustment among peers. The sample will be ethnically diverse. and subject recruitment efforts will be made to compensate for the natural under-representation of girls in samples of behaviorally problematic children and to maximize the participation of fathers/male partners. This research is an initial test of qualitative distinctions in noncompliant behavior by oppositional children. and findings of skill-level and/or domain of behavior effects across groups will inform and stimulate further research on etiological. predictive. and treatment models for antisocial development.